[WillowTheWhisp]

Garinda could you give me links to the sites where you obtained your information please? I'd like to go and have a read of it.

I don't think anyone has said anything here which is homophobic and I personally get a bit miffed when anyone uses that word because it tends to be bandied about to make people feel guilty of something when all they have done is give an honest opinion. It's a bit like those political posters which were criticised for being anti-semitic when they showed Michael Howard and somebody else as flying pigs and the one which was interpreted as Michael Howard in the role of Shylock when in actual fact it was meant to be a hypnotist. Until all the hoohah about the posters I didn't even know Michael Howard was Jewish but now that I do know it doesn't change my opinion of him as a politician one way or the other. It's totally irrelevant. I wonder if the poster designer had any idea that the two people involved are Jewish? Anyway I'm wandering.

Although Busman isn't, I am a member of the LDS church, the correct title is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and the reason why I want to clarify the name is that it isn't a church dedicated to some obscure and unknown saint. It is a church named after Jesus Christ and the "Latter-day Saints" in the title refers to the members of the church. This is often misinterpreted and we get accused of thinking of ourselves as being "superior", "saintly" or "holier than thou" by people who don't actually know us. When people do know us they find out that we're very far removed from that image. You want to meet a crowd of us women at a party and you'll soon realise what a mottley crew were are. The reason the term "saint" is used is because the members of the early church (ie what was on earth when Paul and what have you were around) didn't so much call themselves Christians as "saints" and because we are the same sort of rabble but in these later times we're just known as "Latter-day Saints". It could just as easily be "modern time Christians"

Anyhow where was I? Oh yes. I need to swat up a bit on sins. We're all probably guilty of more than one. I do like reading information about the church on the net. Some of it is accurate and some of it isn't. Some people set up their own websites and tend to rabbit on a bit, which isn't really approved of because they can get a bit personal and drift from the point. There is one officially approved website but I'm not sure how much doctrine there is in there.

As I've said previously I know more than one gay person and I don't immediately think of them as a sexual classification but as an individual. If it comes up in conversation then maybe we'll discuss it, if it doesn't then we don't. I had a very good friend (sadly now deceased) who was an actor and because he never married people (especially female fans) used to ask me if he was gay. As it was something he never spoke about I would only tell them that he considered himself married to his career and leave it at that.

I know of more than one church member who is gay and one who has had some quite responsible positions within the church. Maybe the fact that he is celibate made a difference. I don't know. The reason I don't know is because it really has never been all that important to me personally. I just take people as they come. if I like em I like em. if I don't I don't.